Cover blurb:'I'm sure the Beach Boys didn't have mutant elephants in mind when they wrote "Surfin' USA.".'

When Bernice Summerfield finds human skull fragments containing her own DNA in the stomach of a mummified dinosaur, she embarks on a trail of murder and betrayal. From the alien jungles of France to the primal continent of Pangaea, the trail leads ever further back in time. Together with Patience, the cloned smart-raptor, Benny must brave alien hybrids, agents of the Knights Templar guarding a secret older than time — and have breakfast with the man who would be Emperor of Earth.

All to find the fabled Sword of Forever, a mythical device with the power to destroy and create civilisations — but at what price?

Everything goes critical as Bernice and Patience travel across 120 million years and two universes — where ancient traps guard crumbling ruins, love is unrequited, time is running out, treasure is always buried and X never fails to mark the spot.

Jim Mortimore is a pain in the ass to work with, but remarkably cuddly in bed.